Mellow Yellow

Donovan - Mellow Yellow

Mellow Yellow
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Category: Music CD
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CD Details

Artist: Donovan
Edition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-05-16
Music Label: EMI Europe Generic
Soundtracks:
  1. Mellow Yellow
  2. Writer In The Sun
  3. Sand And Foam
  4. The Observation
  5. Bleak City Woman
  6. House Of Jansch
  7. Young Girl Blues
  8. Museum
  9. Hampstead Incident
  10. Sunny South Kensington
  11. Epistle To Dippy (Stereo)
  12. Preachin' Love
  13. Good Time
  14. There Is A Mountain
  15. Superlungs (Second Version)
  16. Epistle To Dippy (Alternative Arr) (Stereo)
  17. Sidewalk (The Observation) (Demo) (Mono)
  18. Writer In The Sun (Demo) (Mono)
  19. Hampstead Incident (Demo) (Mono)
  20. Museum (Demo) (Mono)

Music reviews of Mellow Yellow

Music Review: For once, the bonus tracks are worth it
Rating: 5 Stars

Remasters can be a dubious affair: they range from a clear grab for your money, where the remaster sounds basically like the original, and only a teensy weensy bit has been changed to satisfy the legality of the product - to the kind where the whole issue is moot because you need special equipment to hear the bells and whistles. Most of the time, you're better off saving your dollars for something new, rather than indulging your nostalgia in the hopes that this time around, somehow, what wasn't broke to begin with will be magically fixed. The bonus tracks that are added as bait are frequently the most troublesome aspect of the remastered editions. Almost always they confirm what you suspected: that there was very good reason why they didn't make it onto the original CD or vinyl; the artist knew what he/she was doing and modestly chose not to present his/her lesser efforts, but now, especially if said artist is dead, the exploitation knows no limits. Occasionally, the bonus tracks have the creepy effect of making you think that the band you loved perhaps wasn't all that great and all that good stuff was really due to side musicians and brilliant studio engineers.
So I hope that all these caveats give strength to my recommendation of this issue of Mellow Yellow, because I'm recommending it for the wonderful bonus tracks. Mellow Yellow is an excellent album, although not my favorite Donovan album: as another reviewer pointed out, the title track is misleading: it presents Donovan as the pop hitter of the day, without much depth; the rest of the album must have come as a terrible disappointment to the teenyboppers of the time, who expected more of the same. Instead, the songs go into fabulous, then uncharted territory, and it is ironic that this musician, who was plagued by accusations of folkie imitation for most of his career, on this album completely obliterated that erroneous image and broke new ground (for which he never got credit) by venturing into jazzy arrangements, upright bass, winds, and the clavinet (harpsichord) that gives the songs a new dimension instead of being just a gimmick. The songs are relaxed and cool, and the lyrics are a wonderfully "hip" document of a bygone era: "Sunny South Kensington" list a whole slew of people who were "making the scene" in swinging London of the sixties, even throwing in French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, then riding the crest of his popularity as the ultra-cool nihilistic gangster in Goddard's "Breathless." The two simply produced (but hardly simple) acoustic songs, "Sand and Foam" and "Young Girl Blues" bring the listener to attention as they clash unexpectedly, but perfectly, with the jazzy groove around them. "Young Girl Blues" qualifies as one of the most poignant descriptions of a lonely girl hoping to make it in the hurly-burly of the "scene," a girl whose friends are "all models," although when the party is over, she retreats to the solitude of her crummy apartment - one can just imagine the leaky faucets and peeling paint.
The mastering is fine, but here, as well, you occasionally wonder if anyone did anything at all. While the wind and brass instruments that on the original blew out the top dynamics and began to distort are pristine now, "Young Girl Blues" still suffers from the same bottom-heavy boom on the acoustic guitar; before I even listened to it I was sure it was going to be the most obvious remastering result: a lighter tone, clearer bottom. But no, it's the same only louder, so it actually sounds even worse than before. What's more, the song always started out with a very slight "weaving" as if it were dipping out of tune, rather like a cassette tape that's loosened and doesn't wind correctly, although this is actually due to the resonance of the lower strings on a powerful acoustic hollow-body.
So back to those bonus tracks: they constitute nearly an album - let's say an EP - in themselves, and are totally worth the price of the admission. The tracks that you know from other albums are here reproduced in crisp, lovely formats; "superlungs" is a stunningly modern arrangement - almost trance-like - of a song that would later become much plainer on a generally plain LP for some reason; the alternative version of "Epistle to Dippy" is seriously different and a joy; and the acoustic demos of the songs are sheer beauty. If you're new to the album and aren't sold on the jazzy arrangements, these demos will show you the songs' brilliant core and, simultaneously, show you just how talented a composer Donovan was. The harmonies come to the fore, the chords are gorgeous, the vocal command is absolute. (Donovan stops singing and restarts on a dime, producing masterful effects just with silences.) If you know the album by heart, you might wind up, like me, listening to just the bonus tracks, over and over again. Buy it, and, as they used to say, dig it, man!
More Mellow Yellow free music reviews:
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Description of Mellow Yellow

2005 Digitally remastered re-issue features nine bonus tracks 'Preachin' Love', 'Good Time', 'There Is A Mountain', 'Superlungs' (Second Version), 'Epistle To Dippy' (Alternative Arr), 'Sidewalk (The Observation) (Demo), 'Writer In The Sun' (Demo), 'Hampstead Incident' (Demo), 'Museum' (Demo). Drawing on a broad range of Donovan's material from his and past present, Mickie Most once again handles the production on Donovan's second album for EMI, while John Cameron provides a selection of exquisite arrangements, with the exception of Mellow Yellow which was arranged by John Paul Jones. EMI.

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